Community Colleges

Women are represented in all echelons of the community college-they are students, faculty members, and support staff, as well as administrators and trustees. There are more women in community colleges than in four-year universities. Since the 1970s, women have dominated higher education enrollments and are even better represented in community college enrollments. The percentage of senior-level administrators (academic officers, student affairs officers, chief financial officers) and full-time women faculty has also significantly increased during this time. However, although there have been marked shifts illustrating the greater parity women have achieved with men in the community college, they remain underrepresented in professional leadership executive positions and overrepresented in nonprofessional support service positions. In addition, issues related to work/school and family balance have received more attention over the past three decades and have been met with greater efforts to address these issues.

Overall, women have a greater presence and higher completion rates in community colleges. They enroll in [Page 318]community colleges at greater rates (59 percent) than in four-year public universities (54 percent). Women students in community colleges tend to be nontraditional in that they are older, more ethnically diverse, and face a host of challenges (financial constraints, low academic skills, family conflicts, psychological distress) not typical of women at traditional four-year universities. Despite these challenges, women persist more than men in the community college and have higher completion rates for associates degrees and certificates. They take longer periods of time to finish these degrees and certificates, but they nonetheless complete them at greater rates than their male counterparts. In 2001-02, women had greater associate's degree (62 percent) and certificate (53 percent) completion rates than their male counterparts across all racial and ethnic groups.

The number of women faculty members in community colleges has achieved parity with men, even at the tenured level. In 2003, 49 percent of full-time faculty were women, and in 2006 their representation increased to 50.8 percent. This level of representation is unmatched in any other higher educational institution. Women faculty members in community colleges are also tenured (62 percent) at greater rates when compared with their four-year university female counterparts (38 percent). However, despite their increasing approach to parity with men, women are tenured at lower rates (62 percent) than men in community colleges (68 percent) and earn, on average, between 4 and 7 percent less than their male counterparts. However, this disparity is less stark when compared with the salary discrepancy found at four-year universities, where women make 11 to 12 percent less than their male counterparts.

Although the number of women in professional positions in community colleges has increased over the past three decades, they still remain the least represented in this sector. Scholars in higher education argue that the amount of power people have is defined by the position they hold within an organization. Hence, in community colleges, college presidents and vice presidents have more structural power than faculty, who have more power than students. That women have achieved parity with men in faculty rankings and are overrepresented in student enrollments demonstrates their increasing access and presence in the community college. However, this parity with men tends to be in less powerful positions. Indeed, in 2001, women remained overrepresented in positions such as clerical/secretarial (85.8 percent), technical/paraprofessional (61.6 percent), and support services (63.4 percent) positions. In contrast, women constituted 51 percent of the new hires in executive/administrative/managerial position and 52 percent of faculty new hires in community colleges. This indicates that efforts (even if marginal) are being made to hire women in more professional positions and to increase their representation. As well as these advances, however, women constituted the majority of new hires in support services (74.6 percent), technical/paraprofessional positions (61.2 percent), and clerical/secretarial positions (88.5 percent) during this time.

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